7 Ways We’d Fix PlayStation Vita

PlayStation Vita is in a tight spot. Here's what we'd suggest to get it turned around.

Sony launched its next-generation handheld gaming platform last year with a price tag of around $250 and a lineup of decent, but unremarkable games. Eight months later, we're still waiting for the game library to live up to the promise of the sleek hardware. Even as execs stressed that Vita was a "top priority," Sony all but ignored its new baby during its presentation at the E3 Expo in June.

Consumers have reacted with indifference. Sony says it has only sold 2.2 million Vita units worldwide. Rival Nintendo has already sold 19 million units of its competing 3DS.

Little upgrades like this aren't going to save Vita. Sony needs to make some big, pro-consumer moves. If we had the wheel, here's how we'd attempt to right the ship.

Cheaper, Faster Games

Vita is hurting for new releases. Huge triple-A projects are expensive and time-consuming, but do people really need that out of their handheld gaming?

Sony has PlayStation Mobile coming up, a development platform that is supposed to bring scores of small developers to Sony hardware, theoretically giving Vita owners a smartphone-like selection of new games when it launches this fall. But these are games optimized for all kinds of machines, from tablets to Android phones. Vita could use these, but it could also use exclusive versions that take advantage of the hardware.

End the Storage Wars

I don't have a lot of software on my Vita, but between the pre-installed apps, optional social networking apps, game demos, PSP games and Minis, I'm already on my sixth page of icons on the menu. Once Sony starts unleashing more PlayStation 1 games on Vita, that will be a whole other tab. All I want to do is store similar items together in folders, just like I can on a smartphone. Or 3DS. Or previous Sony game consoles, for that matter.

Sony really screwed consumers when it decided that PlayStation Vita memory cards would be a proprietary format. 3DS uses industry-standard SD cards that you can buy on the cheap. But if you want more space on Vita for all those games that Sony might release one day, you have to pay up -- nearly $100 for a 32 GB card.

Insult to injury: Many of the most popular games won't even boot unless you have a memory card, even though it's possible to add game-saving functionality to Vita carts. Have your eye on that Vita bundled with a copy of Madden? Unless you buy a memory card, you won't be throwing around any pigskins at all.

It's too late for Sony to add an SD card slot to Vita, but it should work hard to lower the price of extra space now that it has a monopoly on the business. And of course, if it does release a redesigned console it should add in a non-proprietary storage option.

Illustration: Simon Lutrin/Wired

Lead by Example

Nintendo commits the entirety of its top design teams to crafting original 3DS software. Most of the Vita teams are triple-A, but only in the baseball sense. And they're being sent to play the Yankees.

Sony's Uncharted on Vita wasn't made by Naughty Dog. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is being made for PlayStation 3 and then ported to the Vita by Bluepoint Games, not the game's original developer.

Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is being made by Ubisoft Sofia, a small studio with few previous credits. It's launching day and date with the real Assassin's Creed III for consoles in October. If players could only spend $60 on the series this year, which would they choose?

The Vita-exclusive Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified isn't made by either Infinity Ward or Treyarch. And again, it's directly competing for attention with the real thing, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Vita games cannot just be also-ran software handed down to a cheaper developer and launched in the shadow of a superior console version. Sony may not have control over third-party software makers, but what about getting its in-house teams to produce Vita-exclusive games as an example? Third parties won't put their top men on Vita unless Sony does, too.

Illustration: Chris Kohler/Wired

Make PlayStation Store Customer-Friendly

The digital storefront on the Vita hardware works rather well. It's easy to swipe between categories and quickly browse all of the available games, apps and other content.

It's certainly much faster to browse than the PlayStation 3 version, but that incarnation has one distinct advantage: Games that are on sale for a limited time are clearly marked as such. There's even a section under "New Releases" that lists all the current deals. On Vita, the only way to know if a product is on sale is to hear about it from someone else.

Speaking of the PlayStation Store, how about giving customers visual hints as to what it is that they are buying? The Xbox Game Marketplace features screenshots of every product. So does the iOS App Store and Google Play, and most of those offerings cost a dollar or less. Yet Vita games, for which Sony asks up to $50, rely entirely on text descriptions and a tiny picture of the cover art.

One more thing: I can log into Xbox.com right now and see what's available for sale and how much it costs. I can purchase content and it will automatically be entered into my download queue the next time I boot up my 360. If I go to PlayStation.com, I get a wall of marketing messages. Clicking the "PlayStation Store" icon, all I get is a page telling me how great PlayStation Store is.

Illustration: Chris Kohler/Wired

Only on Vita

The PlayStation Mobile issue speaks to another Vita shortcoming: a dearth of exclusive software. Recent announcements at the Gamescom expo in Germany teased some intriguing games for the future. And Sony's plan to allow some games to work on Vita and PlayStation 3, then give away the portable version free when a user buys the home game, is sensible.

However, if a potential Vita buyer can get PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and the new Sly Cooper and Rachet & Clank games on a PlayStation 3, there's little incentive to buy the handheld in the first place when the PS3 versions will do. Vita needs Vita-exclusive games rather than Sony-exclusive games.

Look at the Nintendo 3DS last year. It had a weak launch lineup loaded with ports of old games, but by the time the holiday shopping season arrived, Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 were on store shelves. They came from established franchises, yes, but they were unique games that could only be played on a 3DS.

Illustration: Simon Lutrin/Wired

Break the Digital Chains

Vita is technically a region-free piece of hardware. Except not really. Each piece of hardware is tied to a single region-specific account, and all digital software is tied to that account. So if you share a PlayStation 3 with other people, you all can't share a Vita with your PlayStation Network logins.

You can swap accounts on Vita, but you have to initiate a time-consuming "factory reset" to do it. So if you want to download and play software from other regions (or play previously purchased software that is compatible with your Vita) you have to reset the system to play them. And now with Sony's new firmware, you have to have separate memory cards for each of your accounts.

Why can't this be as simple as it is on PlayStation 3? I have PlayStation Network accounts for multiple regions on my PS3, and switching between them takes seconds. Better still, any account attached to my console can play any game. If I could do this on Vita, I would buy more games, especially given the disparity between the different regions' store inventories. Instead, I stick to one region only and keep my money.

Illustration: Simon Lutrin/Wired

Slash the Price

Sales of Vita have been sluggish, just like when Nintendo launched its gaming handheld at $250. The difference is that Nintendo quickly reacted with a drastic price drop.

Meanwhile, Sony digs in its heels: This year would be "too early" for a price drop, Sony's game studio chief Shuhei Yoshida told Eurogamer at the Gamescom show.

"Cost reduction is one area our engineering team is working on. But we just launched the platform earlier this year. It takes time to do so," he said.

But price isn't determined by cost of goods alone. The public has decided that it doesn't want to pop for Vita at $250. Demand isn't there at $250, and this may not be a problem that new games and features alone can solve. It's not too early for a price drop -- if anything, one is long overdue.

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